De Beers is writing News Articles and buying ads everywhere just to cover up the dirty diamond industry they make claims on this site

diamond facts.org which they tout on adsense

Diamondfacts.org is built on bending the truth and feeding propaganda to the masses

The truth however are in Realdiamondfacts.org

I believe De Beers are so neck deep in this they are even editing stories in Wikipedia about blood diamond. Someone attatched a document about the Kimberly Process - which is a method of certifying diamonds. The person doing this must definetly have an agenda what does certify have to do with conflict if you are not in the diamond trading business

Finally I finish off with 10 reasons not to buy diamonds as gotten from the link above

Campaign against "blood diamonds"

Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One

1. You’ve Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a DiamondThe diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.

2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their ValueThe De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.

3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment ValueAny diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers’ advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original “value.”

4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDSMany diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.

5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental ThreatsDiamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals.

6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People’s RightsDiamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.

7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish DiamondsMore than one-half of the world’s diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.

8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in AfricaThere is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.

9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child WarriorsMany diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.

10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond SmugglingIllicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 billion small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.

By Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist - The Ultimate Field Guide to the US Economy

It is not just simply a case of eliminating CONFLICT DIAMONDS ie diamonds produced and sold to finance armed conflicts and gross violations of human rights. We also need to look at what is happening in those non-conflict zones, in the mining of diamonds and human rights violations for the workers in the mines. More to follow on this subject…………….

Friday, 15 December 2006

I have a new project in mind, its a non-profit organization. SO if anyone out there in the blogosphere is interested in getting the youth of today interested in influencing our youths. LETS let the world know that AFRICA SPEAKS

Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, so its kinda easy for us to get caught up in ourselves. The African man for one I'd say is quite selfish, for reasons behind my comprehension, maybe its just a human thing but when the African man does it it gets blown up. Such like in this video

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2705157

My post today is about Nigerians, and our responsibility to Africa. Although Nigeria has its problems, on an African scale things are going good for us Nigerians.

Sometimes I go online and want to find out about whats happening in Africa, in Congo, in Chad, and I want it from a bloggers point of view. I see one or 2 bloggers with something to say but not that many people out there listening. I have read a few blogs from Nigerian bloggers on their dismay that the world (or should I say technorati isnt ranking )isn't listening to what they have to say. WHich is true but even more true of the little African countries everybody seems to have forgotten about. Or the 2 guys left in jail in Angola Louisiana everyone seems to have forgotten about.

As one man I can offer little, but if we join hands and work together we'll see that we can make AFRICA proud

Thats Song's a true life story of 3 guys jailed for 34 years in solitary confinement. Now as a 22 year old, I could say that doesnt concern me and being a Nigerian, there are enough problems in Nigeria to worry about. This 3 guys jailes were are being helped out by Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop.

As he went through Angola fields he saw a solitary cell

The devil was pleased, For it gave him a hint

for improving his prisons in HELL

We here stories like these and move on thinking we can't save anyone and in this case no individual can probably create a huge impact. The people who have stood by this men during their 34 years are probably tired of fighting on, its our responsibility as youths to carry on the cry to get their case heard. The guys behind the video have done alot to appeal to the youth today.

Monday, 11 December 2006

Have you ever wanted or wondered what it was like to be rich. The next Bill Gate or maybe Warren Buffet. Make so much money your great grand children will be driving Maybachs. Statisticly most blog readers / writer want to be rich. At first I wanted to be a banker, work at some prestigious investment bank, do some ugly hours, make a lot of money, but then I thought about it, Bloomberg didn't make his money from working at Salomon Brothers, he worked to the top no doubt but he only ever became loaded after starting his own company.

Well you might say, if you earn a lot and invest wisely. True back in the day the american and european economy was hot, money was being made. Warren Buffet was getting rich, but today Africa is where its at. Some say the emerging markets are China and Brazil, but think about it, am not lecturing Goldman Sachs executives here. Those markets are already saturated with investment banks waiting to steal money off you the minute you invest there. In investments recognize for every looser there's a winner (Not sure who the winner was in the Enron case). And in Africa the players are regular people like me and you.

In summary if you want to make money loads of it, go to Africa. In fact if someone designed a site where I could buy and monitor stocks on africa today i'll be on it everyday and am sure quite a few people will to. SO if anyone out there is interested in such a project. Dont hesitate to leave me a message.

This week or last, I got an email announcing the death of Caramellounge.com. At first, I tought the lack of traffic had forced its owners to shut down. And then there was a mail about it being sold. Why anyone would want to sell at this point it time worries me. But nevertheless with this sale comes also a name change and a lot more features than I bargained for.

When benchmarking african sites, it is simply inconceivable to look at them performance wise in western standards. But this new site is one that begs to be compared, to the likes of facebook and myspace. My reasoning is that, in comparison with The Caramel Lounge This new site is one of effortless efficiency. No more wasted bandwith on loading site images. Something I was going to blog about which made the old one very displeasing. So today we say welcome Afriville.com An African Caribbean Social Network

My review of each of the sites on a one by one basis with pictures of what they have to offer inside is on its way

A couple of months back I ran into a site mzalendo. The word means patriot in Swahili. Not that I would know better but thats what it says on their about page ;-).Their aim is to watch the Kenyan parliament. A noble cause with wide implications. While government of African countries try to have their dealings in closed doors, and will probably try to persecute media companies within the nation who write stories that do not favour them.

In my opinion the Media in Africa is controlled by the Government in Africa

This site is a triumph for all Kenyans at home and abroad. Holding your leaders accountable for their actions. Letting them know that YES

As africans we have failed. We have sat down and watched the internet bloosom and make fruit. When the first wave of internet business began where were we. When google and yahoo were in the making where were we. At the clubs partying maybe? At weddings enjoying ? Working those 12 hour shifts?

WHen the rest of the world saw oppurtunity we saw nothing. And rightly so, given that internet usage is not pervasive in Africa we may be right to think any business model tuned for the african audience will not work. But then again does it have to be for the african audience. Surely English is a univeral language (apologies to french and portugese speaking african countries) and the whole world listens in.

I am tired of watching the news on Africa where nothing good comes up. I am tired of browsing to the CNN Africa news page to see the same old stories of hostages, war, poverty, AIDS, elections, oil, dictators and corruption. I am tired of Africa being everyone elses constant reminder that things are good in their own country. I am tired of Africa being used as a way to make others feel better about their situation. I am tired of those OXFAM ads asking for money to save Africa. I am tired.

I am tired not because those things are bad, but because I hear NOTHING good about Africa

Not just Africa, people of the caribbeans as well. Who stands for them, who speaks for them. The internet is the new media for speech. To be heard you need to shout and this means traffic traffic traffic.

Blogging is where Africa begins on the web. And I'd like to take this oppurunity to praise the Blogs I have read some time or the other over the last year or so, for taking Africa where the African man never dreamt of venturing.